A sixth GP2 podium finish for Mitch Evans in 2014, confirmed his fourth overall placing for the season in the final feature race at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix overnight.
The young New Zealander put in another strong performance at the 5.5km Yas Marina circuit race held at night under lights in the United Arab Emirates. Evans qualified fourth fastest and at one stage ran in second as the tyre strategies unfolded.
The 31 lap race with a compulsory pit stop so drivers must use both the soft and super soft Pirelli tyres; was decided by tyre strategy.
The race was won by McLaren reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne, who opted to start on the fast but fragile super soft compound and stop early; while newly crowned GP2 Champion Jolyn Palmer and Evans chose to run deep into the race on the harder compound before making a late change for super soft tyres.
Vandoorne led from pole position and pitted after just six laps. The Belgian regained the race lead when Palmer and Evans made their stops with nine laps to run. By the finish Vandoorne was 12 seconds ahead of Palmer with Evans seven seconds behind in third and setting the second fastest race lap.
With two wins, two seconds and two third placings from the 21 races to date, Evans cannot be overhauled for fourth overall in the GP2 Championship going into tonight’s final 22 lap sprint race.
“I think we got the most out of the race and the strategy,” said Evans. “At the start the guys on the (super soft) options had a bit more grip and pace for the first lap and the one after the safety car, but then they completely dropped off, so I think the safety car helped them a lot compared to Jolyon and I.”
“At least when they peeled off we could push on with our race. I was just biding my time behind Jolyon and with about 5 laps to go I put the hammer down and was catching him again, and the car felt good on the prime and we were maybe a little better than Jolyon, so that worked out okay.”
“Then on the option I knew it was going to be tough to follow, but ultimately we didn’t have the pace: our one lap pace was very similar to Jolyon’s, but after that the tyre degradation was quite big
Vandoorne’s start from pole was inch perfect, with fellow front row starter Palmer dropping back into the clutches of teammate Stéphane Richelmi and a fast starting Felipe Nasr, who split the pair into the first turn.
Evans passed Palmer into the harbour complex, just before a tangle between Rene Binder, Jon Lancaster and Marco Sorensen prompted a two lap safety car period to clean up the mess.
Vandoorne and Nasr on super softs pulled away from the prime-shod Palmer and Evans at the restart, but the Briton was soon pushing Nasr hard, muscling inside and through into the harbour section just before Vandoorne and Nasr led a group of soft shod drivers into the pits on lap 6,
The fight was now on the clock: Palmer slowly pulled away from Evans, Johnny Cecotto and Stefano Coletti, but all eyes were on the gap back to Vandoorne as the first of the pitted drivers. He rapidly closed the gap to the back of the prime-shod drivers and was up for the fight, overtaking at will to keep the gap to the lead around the 30 second mark.
But as the race ran on the gap started shrinking, and Palmer’s team needed to calculate the loss of time on track versus the expected life of the super softs. Palmer eventually pitted with 9 laps remaining and Evans followed him in
The Englishman had a slower stop and nearly lost the place to the New Zealander as the two almost collided in the pit road. Back on track Palmer was soon eating into Vandoorne’s lead.
The gap dropped for lap after lap, but it then became clear that the tyres weren’t going to last: Palmer started losing time with four laps to go, allowing Vandoorne to clear off for his fourth win of the season, well ahead of Palmer and Evans.
Behind them Nasr and Richelmi took advantage of being on the right strategy to push up to fourth and fifth in the closing laps, ahead of Cecotto and Coletti.
Palmer’s second place sealed the teams’ championship for DAMS to sit alongside his drivers’ title. Vandoorne moves to second place ahead of Nasr, 221 points to 212 with just tonight’s sprint race remaining for the Brazilian to claim back his place.
